Opera Philadelphia Fall 2016 Program

FALL 2016

Turandot Breaking the Waves Macbeth

table of contents 02 03 04 06 08 10

L etter from Board Chairman B oard of Directors W elcome from General Director & President T urandot Synopsis A Note from the Director & Designer

11 12

Artistic & Production Team

14 18 19

Artist Bios

20 23 24 26

W atching Turandot with Modern Eyes

Orchestra Chorus B reaking the Waves S ynopsis C omposer & Librettist M aking Waves: Designing a World Premiere

28

C omposing Opera's Future in Philadelphia

30 34

A rtist Bios

36

42 44 46 47

O rchestra, Chorus & Production Team F all Event Programming

48 49 51

M acbeth Synopsis F rom the Curators onflict in the Eastern C Democratic Republic of Congo C omposer A rtist Bios rchestra, Chorus, & O Production Team

55

L eadership Support & Major Gifts

57 61 64 66 69 70 71 72

A nnual Fund Support C orporate Council E merging Artists S ounds of Learning Volunteers A dministration U p Next: Tancredi O 17

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From the Board Chairman Dear Friends, Welcome to the biggest fall season in the history of Opera Philadelphia.

That is, the biggest fall season until next year!

The 2016–2017 Season opens with an operatic bang, packing three productions and more than two dozen events into two exciting weeks across our great city. This ambitious slate serves as an exciting warm up to fall 2017, when we will launch each season with a 12-day festival, O, featuring seven operatic happenings across multiple venues.

Highlighting this incredible fall is the World Premiere of the chamber opera Breaking the Waves by composer Missy Mazzoli, a graduate of Opera Philadelphia’s Composer in Residence program, and librettist Royce Vavrek, who based it on the Oscar-nominated 1996 film by Lars von Trier. Right down the street, at the historic Academy of Music, you can also enjoy Christine Goerke in the title role of a lavish production of Puccini’s Turandot, complete with an Opening Night Gala on September 23 and a free Opera on the Mall HD broadcast on October 1. These two operas are served alongside the American Premiere Tour of a unique take on Verdi’s Macbeth from South Africa’s most provocative director, Brett Bailey, and his innovative theater company, Third World Bunfight, co-presented with FringeArts at the Prince Theater as part of the Curated 2016 Fringe Festival.

This incredible fall season would not have been possible without you. Your support has allowed Opera Philadelphia to present innovative and inspired productions that nurture the evolution of the art form. You have also made it possible for our visionary leaders, General Director & President David B. Devan and Jack Mulroney Music Director Corrado Rovaris, to conceptualize bold artistic projects and secure the creative artists and partnerships necessary to achieve them.

I hope that this fall serves as a first step toward how we all experience opera together. Please let this book and our newly-launched app be your guide as you explore opera in Philadelphia.

Thank you for joining us. I look forward to seeing you in the opera house, on the mall, at brunch, or a film screening, or a recital, and again throughout this season and beyond.

Sincerely,

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Daniel K. Meyer, M.D. Chairman

Opera Philadelphia Board of Directors officers

Daniel K. Meyer, M.D. Chairman Frederick P. Huff Vice Chair Peter Leone Vice Chair Alice Strine, Esq. Vice Chair Scott F. Richard Secretary Thomas Mahoney Treasurer David B. Devan* President

members

Daniel K. Meyer, M.D.

Benjamin Alexander

Agnes Mulroney

Sandra Baldino

Scott F. Richard

F. Joshua Barnett, M.D., J.D.

Jonathan H. Sprogell

Willo Carey

Eugene Stark

Nicholas Chimicles, Esq.

James B. Straw

Ady L. Djerassi, M.D.

Alice Strine, Esq.

Charles C. Freyer, Esq.

Kenneth R. Swimm

Ehab Hammad

Maria Trafton

Mark Hankin

Charlotte Watts

Frederick P. Huff

Donna Wechsler

Caroline Kennedy

honorary members

Joel M. Koppelman Beverly Lange, M.D. Ellen Berman Lee Gabriele Lee Peter Leone Thomas Mahoney

Dennis Alter

Alan B. Miller H.F. (Gerry) Lenfest Stephen A. Madva, Esq.

Chairman Emeritus

List as of August 2016 *Ex officio

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From the General Director Dear Friends, Opera is now open!

That was the slogan we used last fall when we announced Opera Philadelphia would be opening each season with a fall festival beginning in 2017. With O17, we’ll transform the city of Philadelphia into a giant stage for all that opera is and all that it can be, gathering some of the most sought-after composers, librettists, directors, designers, and performing artists for a rich and varied lineup of projects.

But it’s more than a slogan. It’s a philosophy that drives us every day at Opera Philadelphia, and in many ways we’ve opened opera a year early! I could not be more proud of the artists, Board of Directors, staff members, and partners who have created this dynamic fall season at Opera Philadelphia. We all get to experience this art form in all its varied glory this fall: a World Premiere chamber opera by a dynamic young creative team led by Missy Mazzoli, Royce Vavrek, and James Darrah; the American Premiere Tour of a radical retelling of Verdi’s Macbeth by South Africa’s most compelling theater company Third World Bunfight; and a lush, gorgeous staging of Puccini’s Turandot at the Academy of Music starring some of the most amazing voices of our day. Surrounding those operas with artist Q&As, and film screenings, and recitals, and lectures, and a free outdoor Opera on the Mall broadcast enriches our understanding of and passion for opera.

And this is just the beginning!

We have been fortunate to have the support of a number of sponsors and partners on this journey. I want to personally thank our vital community of donors including our Board of Directors, the foundation community, and you, our patrons, for your major support of Opera Philadelphia’s fall productions and events. Opera is indeed now open in Philadelphia thanks to their generosity and the incredible support of each and every one of you.

Thank you for coming along for the ride.

David B. Devan General Director & President @ D D E VA N

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SEPTEMBER 23, 25M, 28, 30, OCTOBER 2M, 2016 ACADEMY OF MUSIC PA R T O F T H E K I M M E L C E N T E R F O R T H E P E R F O R M I N G A R T S

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TUR ANDOT Music / Giacomo Puccini Libretto / Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni Conductor / Corrado Rovaris Director / Renaud Doucet Set & Costume Design / AndrĂŠ Barbe* Original Lighting Design / Guy Simard* Lighting Design / Anne Catherine Simard-Deraspe* Chorus Master / Elizabeth Braden Wig & Make-up Design / David Zimmerman Stage Manager / Jenny Harber

C AST Turandot / Christine Goerke Calaf / Marco Berti* LiĂš / Joyce El-Khoury* Timur / Morris Robinson Ping / Daniel Belcher Pang / Julius Ahn* Pong / Joseph Gaines The Mandarin / Johnathan McCullough Emperor Altoum / Toffer Mihalka Prince of Persia / George Ross Somerville Handmaidens / Veronica Chapman-Smith, Jennifer Beattie Featuring members of the Commonwealth Youthchoir, the official Youthchoirs of Opera Philadelphia. *Opera Philadelphia debut Co-production with Minnesota Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Utah Opera, and Seattle Opera.

Major support for Turandot has been provided by the Wyncote Foundation at the recommendation of Frederick R. Haas, Mrs. Sandra K. Baldino, and the William Penn Foundation.

Turandot Synopsis

Approximate running time of Turandot is two hours and 40 minutes, including one 20-minute and one 15-minute intermission.

act i Turandot, daughter of Emperor Altoum, has decreed that she will only marry if a suitor of noble blood can answer three riddles. If he cannot, the price shall be his head. Her most recent suitor, the Prince of Persia, is to be executed at the moon’s rising. In the commotion outside the palace a blind man falls to the ground, and his companion, Liù, asks for help. They are aided by Calaf, who recognizes the man as his long-lost father, Timur, the banished ruler of his land. Calaf, like his father, is running from enemies and concealing his identity, and is known only as the Unknown Prince.

Liù continues to aid Timur even in exile because years before, as she explains, Calaf bestowed a smile upon her.

The people impatiently await the beheading. As the Prince of Persia enters, the crowd is suddenly moved and pleads with the Princess to pardon him. Turandot appears and dispassionately confirms the Prince’s sentence with a silent gesture. Calaf immediately is entranced by her beauty.

Timur and Liù try to convince the smitten Calaf that he must leave with them, but he breaks away and attempts to announce himself as a suitor. The three ministers of the Imperial Household, Ping, Pang, and Pong, warn him of his folly, to no avail. Liù begs him to listen, but Calaf ignores her entreaties and ceremoniously rings the gong, signifying his challenge for Turandot’s hand.

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intermission act ii Ping, Pang, and Pong prepare for the eventuality of a wedding or a funeral.

They discuss their misery since Turandot reached marriageable age, numbering the many noble suitors who have met a deadly fate and reminiscing about life in their native provinces. Is there truly a man whose passion can melt Turandot’s icy heart?

Their hopes are guarded.

A crowd assembles for the Trial of the Three Enigmas. Turandot devised this system to avenge her ancestress, Lou-Ling, who was captured, raped, and put to death by marauding invaders. She offers Calaf one last

chance to withdraw, but he stands firm. The first question is offered: “What is born each night and dies each dawn?” Calaf correctly answers “Hope.” Slightly taken aback, Turandot poses the next riddle: “What flares warm like a flame, yet it is no flame?”

Calaf hesitates, then answers perfectly “Blood.” Visibly shaken, Turandot asks the final question: “The ice that gives you fire, what can it be?” Calaf tarries, then triumphantly cries “Turandot!”

The people celebrate his victory, but Turandot pleads with the emperor not to be given to this Unknown Prince.

Seeing her distress, Calaf offers a riddle of his own: “If before morning you can discover the name I bear, I shall forfeit my life.”

putting his life in Turandot’s hands.

Trumpets announce the arrival of dawn and the assembly of the court.

Turandot addresses the emperor and the people: “I have discovered the stranger’s name—it is Love!”

– C ourtesy of Minnesota Opera, provided by OPERA America

intermission act iii It is decreed that none shall sleep, under penalty of death, until the name of the Unknown Prince is discovered.

Calaf expresses his conviction that he alone will reveal the secret. Ping, Pang, and Pong offer any prize, including his safe escape, if he tells them his name.

Timur and Liù are captured, and at Turandot’s request Timur is to be tortured until he reveals the truth. Liù steps forward and says that she knows the prince’s name but will keep it as her eternal secret. Calaf reproaches the Princess for her cruelty. Turandot’s strength and desire for revenge leave her, and she weeps for the first time.

Calaf reveals his true identity, thereby

Photos by Philip Groshong for Cincinnati Opera

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A Note from the Director & Designer Since 2006 our production of Turandot, inspired by the myth of China’s Hmong minority, which tells how all creatures, including humans, are descended from a Butterfly mother, has played regularly in the repertoire of the Volksoper Wien in Vienna.

In 2009 a consortium of U.S. opera companies—Pittsburgh Opera, Seattle Opera, Minnesota Opera, Utah Opera, Cincinnati Opera, and Opera Philadelphia—asked us to create a new production. The mandate was to create a Chineseinspired grand spectacle, but we wanted to ensure that the spectacle remained in service of what made the opera pertinent in the first place.

“ We saw a pattern of numbers” When we studied again the score we saw a pattern of numbers, and so decided, in working out this production, to incorporate some of the ancient Chinese traditions surrounding the symbolism of shapes and numbers that are still so influential, and that Puccini apparently recognized as well.

The circular motif prevalent in the sets and costumes captures the idea of transformation through the cyclical journey of life and death.

The motif is also a constant reminder of the presence of the gong that has brought death to so many of 10

Turandot’s suitors—a burden that she carries symbolically inside the sleeves of her royal garment.

As the score so graphically directs, Calaf strikes the gong three times, a significant number in Chinese numerology that represents heaven, earth, and man as well as the three stages of a man’s life: birth, marriage, and death (Ping, Pong, and Pang).

The number six in Mandarin is pronounced as “liu” and represents blessings and happiness, and is therefore considered auspicious. The number eight is associated with prosperity and fortune. As such, the eight scholars pronounce Calaf ’s good fortune when he answers Turandot’s riddles correctly.

For all the characters it is their humanity and personal growth that is most important. It is, after all, the point of life, and of all fairy-tales.

Our two Turandot productions are extremely different, and while it is unusual for directors and designers to be given the opportunity to mount two separate productions of the same work within a few years, there is never only one way of doing things.

The experience has even led us to conceive other ideas for presenting this fantastic opera.

–Renaud Doucet Director –André Barbe Set & Costume Designer

Turandot Artistic & Production Team artistic

Associate Director / Kathleen Stakenas Principal Pianist / Grant Loehnig Musical Assistant / Reese Revak Assistant Chorus Master / Emily May Sung Supertitle Operator / Tony Solitro Assistant Librarian / Goeffrey McDonald Children’s Chorus Masters / Steve Fisher, Vincent Metallo Assistant Choreographer / Roxanne Foster

production & technical

Properties Supervisor / Jen Burkhart–Avista Custom Theatrical Services Assistant Lighting Designer / Sasha Anistratova Festival Assistant Production Manager / Vincent Carbone Festival Driver/Runner / Shane Dreher Technical Director / Stephen Dickerson Master Electrician / Terry Smith Properties / Paul Lodes Flyman / Mike Ruffo Assistant Electrician / Ali Blair Barwick Scene Shop Technicians / Tommy Bowen, Pete Mohan, Roland Reed Assistant Stage Managers / Greg Boyle, Sara Prince Production Assistant / Sara Marinich Wardrobe Supervisor / Elisa Murphy Cutter/Tailor / Althea “Nell ” Unrath Cutter/Drapers / Kara Morasco, Anna Light First Hands / Derwin Cooper, Joyanne Rampulla, Patrick Mulhall Stitchers / Kate Edelson, Suzie Barrett Craftperson / Julie Watson Shopper / Kathy Calhoun Wig & Make-up Assistants / Lexi O’Reilly, Jodi Stone

supernumeraries

Super Men / Dave Eder, Andrew Blasenak, Eren Brock, William Ince, Jacob Cordie, Brandon Holcomb, Jason Eric Klemm, Cris Welti, Timothy Sheridan, Sam Leopold Super Woman / Hanna Gaffney Super Children / Aidan Peterson, Hayden Clark, Joseph Kenworthey, Kael Kaufer, Cody McBride, Julian Miller, Joseph Procopio, Cole Semel, Cameron Bowden, Kent Young, Andrew Farkas, Timmy Woodward, Aiden Barrow Child Wrangler / Max Vaspoli

dancers

Courtney Conigatti Sydney Donovan Roxanne Foster

Alexis Guthrie Harlee Trautman Kathryn Van Yahres

Special thanks to Roni Koresh and the Koresh Dance Company for assistance with the casting of the dancers

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Watching Turandot with Modern Eyes

By Bi Jean Ngo Turandot is often called a fantasy fable, a fictitious legend that serves as a cautionary tale about love and leadership. However, elements of the popular story demand a deeper examination from today’s viewer.

Giacomo Puccini composed Turandot in 1924, at a time when no one had the internet and few Westerners traveled to China. In 2016, it is imperative that one views Turandot with the understanding that Puccini's imagined China is entirely fictitious, a setting meant to distance his story from the geographical and political landscape of Italy. Puccini wrote at a time when Europeans exoticized China and based their ideas of Asian culture on cultural appropriations and stereotype.

The story itself is an appropriation of several cultures, having passed through the lens of various retellings: Turandot comes from a French version of a Persian story which was transformed into the commedia dell ’arte play that inspired an opera suddenly set in an imagined China.

In experiencing this opera, one must then relinquish the idea of cultural authenticity while hoping for a production that offers respectful cultural representation.

The characters of Ping, Pong, and Pang, for instance, can at first glance seem buffoonish and possibly offensive. To someone of Asian heritage, the names themselves seem 12

based on a stereotype of the language or an appropriation of the Chinese-invented game of Ping Pong. Google an image of past productions, and most interpretations of Ping, Pong, and Pang show opera singers wearing eyeliner that gives them aggressively slanted eyes while wearing ridiculous costumes that don’t resemble historically accurate Chinese royal ministers, but look more like clown costumes.

However, in Puccini’s day, these characters would have seemed familiar due to their commedia dell ’arte roots. Commedia dell ’arte is a classic style of Italian theatre that uses extreme gesture, masks, ensemble movement and archetypal clowns to present narratives and ideas to the masses. Commedia character types included a hero and his lover, the mischievous servant, and the vecchio, or wise old man, among others. While Turandot is an epic romantic drama, the influences of commedia dell ’arte remain. The characters of Ping, Pong, and Pang are clearly the vecchi who try desperately to thwart Calaf ’s pursuit of the Princess Turandot.

Another story element that begs examination today is the stereotypical treatment of both female characters, Turandot and Liù. The Princess Turandot refuses to marry and executes her suitors as epic revenge for an ancestor’s rape. The servant girl Liù withstands physical torture to protect the identity of Calaf because she has loved him her whole

Photo by Philip Groshong for Cincinnati Opera.

life. However, Liù does not garner Calaf ’s affection and she kills herself.

In the final act, the Princess Turandot succumbs to Calaf ’s aggressive pursuit and marries him. The Princess Turandot perpetuates the stereotype of the heartless Asian “dragon lady,” while Liù is the quintessential submissive, delicate Asian flower.

This depiction of women is, of course, not unique to opera. But in 2016, these female characters and their narrative arcs might elicit a different response than that of an audience member from ninety years ago. We’re living in a time when the U.S. Asian population is growing exponentially, when a woman has been nominated for president, and when women around the world are fighting for and gaining equal rights to education and income. It’s a different world than when Puccini wrote his opera.

then go home and discuss the complexities of a show like Turandot in today’s society. Perhaps the power of this piece resides not only in its epic grandeur and music, but also in its potential to begin a conversation about cultural and gender awareness in the art of opera.

Bi Jean Ngo is creative director of Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists, a collective of theatre artists who seek to enhance and strengthen the presence of Asian Americans in the Philadelphia theatre community.

Appreciating opera doesn’t mean forgiving the form its flaws.

Globalization and gender equality have changed the way we interpret stories and art. But perhaps what keeps opera relevant today is that audience members can enjoy the music and get swept away by the romance, 13

Turandot Artists JULIUS AHN / Pang tenor (Allston, Massachusetts) recent activities: Monostatos, The Magic Flute,

Opera Philadelphia debut

Michigan Opera Theatre & Hawaii Opera Theatre; Goro, Madama Butterfly, Vancouver Opera & Northern Lights Music Festival; Pang, Turandot, Cincinnati Opera

ANDRÉ BARBE set & costume designer (Venezia, Italy) recent activities: La Belle Hélène, Staatsoper Hamburg;

Opera Philadelphia debut

Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Oper Bonn; Arabella, Cologne Opera

JENNIFER BEATTIE / Handmaiden #2 mezzo-soprano (Columbus, Ohio)

2016 The Elixir of Love 2015 Don Carlo 2012 Manon Lescaut

recent activities: Soloist, Handel’s Messiah, Chamber

Orchestra of Philadelphia; Soloist, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, Argento Chamber Ensemble; Rose, Forgetting, Artsong Repertory Theater Company

DANIEL BELCHER / Ping baritone (St. Joseph, Missouri) recent activities: Pooh-Bah, The Mikado, Chautauqua

Opera; Governor Bellingham, The Scarlet Letter, Opera Colorado; Danilo, The Merry Widow, Utah Opera

MARCO BERTI / Calaf tenor (Como, Italy) recent activities: Giannetto, La cena delle beffe, Teatro

2008 T h e Italian Girl in Algiers 2006 Cinderella 2004 The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein

Opera Philadelphia debut

alla Scala; Calaf, Turandot, Metropolitan Opera; Radames, Aida, Opéra National de Paris

ELIZABETH BRADEN chorus master (Easton, Pennsylvania) recent activities: Cold Mountain, Opera Philadelphia;

La traviata, Opera Philadelphia; Director of Music, Wallingford Presbyterian Church

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2016 The Elixir of Love 2015 Oscar 2006 M argaret Garner (Partial Listing)

Turandot Artists VERONICA CHAPMAN-SMITH / Handmaiden #1 soprano (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

2016 The Elixir of Love 2012 Manon Lescaut 2009 Madama Butterfly (Partial Listing)

recent activities: Elvis/Ensemble, ANDY: A Popera,

Opera Philadelphia; Lily, Porgy and Bess, Lyric Opera of Chicago; First Lady, The Magic Flute, OperaDelaware

RENAUD DOUCET director & choreographer (Venezia, Italy)

2009 Turandot

recent activities: La Belle Hélène, Staatsoper Hamburg; Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Oper Bonn; Arabella, Cologne Opera

JOYCE EL-KHOURY / Liù soprano (Ottawa, Ontario) recent activities: Violetta, La traviata, Canadian Opera

Opera Philadelphia debut

Company; Maria, Maria Stuarda, Seattle Opera; Tatyana Bakst, Great Scott, San Diego Opera

JOSEPH GAINES / Pong tenor (Boulder, Colorado)

2015 Oscar 2013 The Magic Flute

recent activities: Basilio, The Marriage of Figaro, Utah

Opera; Monostatos, The Magic Flute, Opera Colorado; Inspector Littlechild, Oscar, Opera Philadelphia

CHRISTINE GOERKE / Turandot soprano (Medford, New York) recent activities: Brünnhilde, Siegfried, Canadian

2008 Fidelio 2008 Norma 2007 Falstaff (Partial Listing)

Opera Company & Houston Grand Opera; Turandot, Turandot, Metropolitan Opera; Elektra, Elektra, Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall

JOHNATHAN McCULLOUGH / Mandarin baritone (Los Angeles, California)

2014 The Barber of Seville

recent activities: Il Conte, Le nozze di Figaro, Curtis Opera Theatre; Howard, Double Exposure, Opera Philadelphia; Edward Kynaston (cover), Prince of Players, Houston Grand Opera

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TURANDOT Saturday, October 1, 2016 6:00 p.m. pre-show | 7:00 p.m. broadcast Independence National Historical Park

L A N D O F T H E F R E E. H O M E O F T H E B R A V O. Regist er f or FREE tic ke ts a t

OPERAONTHEMALL.ORG

MEDIA PARTNERS

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#ONTHEMALL

Turandot Artists TOFFER MIHALKA / Emperor Altoum tenor (Mission Viejo, California) recent activities: Malcolm, Macbeth, OperaDelaware;

2015 Oscar 2013 Silent Night 2003 Ariadne auf Naxos (Partial Listing)

Parpignol, La bohème, Opera Philadelphia; Bailiff, Oscar, Opera Philadelphia

MORRIS ROBINSON / Timur bass (Atlanta, Georgia)

2015 Don Carlo 2013 Nabucco 2005 Aïda

recent activities: Joe, Show Boat, The Dallas Opera;

Oroveso, Norma, LA Opera; Ferrando, Il trovatore, Cincinnati Opera

CORRADO ROVARIS conductor (Bergamo, Italy) recent activities: Rachmaninoff, Mussorgsky,

Artosphere Festival; Lucia di Lammermoor, Opera national de Lorraine à Nancy; Schumann, Beethoven, Amiata Piano Festival

ANNE CATHERINE SIMARD-DERASPE lighting designer (Montréal, Quebec) recent activities: Madama Butterfly, Opéra de Montréal;

2016 Charlie Parker’s YARDBIRD 2006 Cinderella 1999 The Marriage of Figaro (Partial Listing)

Opera Philadelphia debut

Notre petite ville, Productions JBH; Die Fledermaus, Opéra de Montréal

GEORGE ROSS SOMERVILLE / Prince of Persia tenor (Point Pleasant, New Jersey)

2016 The Elixir of Love 2016 Cold Mountain 2015 La traviata

recent activities: Trin, La fanciulla del West, Des Moines

Metro Opera; Spoletta, Tosca, Sarasota Opera; First Armored Man, Die Zauberflöte, Opera Saratoga

DAVID ZIMMERMAN wig & make-up designer (Mt. Pleasant, Texas) recent activities: The Shining, Minnesota Opera;

Becoming Santa Claus, The Dallas Opera; Faust, International Music Festival, Macau, China

2016 Cold Mountain 2015 Charlie Parker’s YARDBIRD 2013 The Magic Flute (Partial Listing)

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Turandot Orchestra violin i

Dayna Anderson, Concertmaster Igor Szwec, Assistant Concertmaster Meichen Liao-Barnes Charles Parker Diane Barnett Donna Grantham Elizabeth Kaderabek Alexandra CutlerFetkewicz Guillaume Combet Eliza Cho Christof Richter

violin ii

Emma Kummrow, Principal Luigi Mazzocchi Sarah Dubois Karen Banos Paul Reiser Heather Zimmerman Henry Flory Piotr Filochowski Lisa Vaupel

viola

Jonathan Kim, Principal Carol Briselli, Assistant Principal Julia DiGaetani Ellen Trainer Kathleen Foster Ruth Frazier Steven Heitlinger

cello

Vivian Barton Dozor, Principal Brooke Beazley Jennifer Lorenzo 18

David Moulton Glenn Fischbach Elizabeth Thompson

Steven Heitzer Frank Ferraro

bass

Robert Gale, Principal Edward Cascarella Philip McClelland

Miles B. Davis, Principal Anne Peterson Stephen Groat

flute

Adeline Tomasone, Principal Eileen Grycky Kim Trolier

oboe

Geoffrey Deemer, Principal Alexandra von der Embse Steven Labiner

clarinet

Joseph A. Smith, Principal Allison Herz Doris Hall-Gulati

bassoon

Wade Coufal, Principal Jon Gaarder Michael Pedrazzini

french horn

John David Smith, Principal Kathy Mehrtens Ryan Stewart Todd Williams

trumpet

Brian D. Kuszyk, Principal

trombone

tuba

Paul Erion, Principal

timpani

Martha Hitchins, Principal

percussion

Ralph Sorrentino, Principal David Nelson Christopher Hanning

harp

Sophie Bruno Labiner, Principal

celeste/organ Linda Henderson

banda trumpet

George Rabbai Thomas Cook Steven Skahill Lawrence Wright

trombone

Brad Ward Justin Moore Jonathan Schubert

Turandot Chorus soprano

Erin Alcorn Julie Bishop Veronica Chapman-Smith Nathalie Dalziel Natalie Dewey Katherine Dufendach Noël Graves-Williams Julie-Ann Green Charlea Lyn Grieco Valerie Haber Evan Kardon Carole Latimer Jessica Mary Murphy Christine Nass Aimee Pilgermayer Evelyn Santiago Amy Spencer

alto

Jennifer Beattie Robin Bier Renée Cantwell Marissa Chalker Eve Hyzer C. Paige Kenley Megan McFadden Ellen Grace Peters Paula Rivera-Dantagnan Kristen Seikaly Karina Sweeney Kaitlyn Tierney Teresa Washam

tenor

Sang B. Cho Jonathon Feinstein Joshua Glassman William Lim, Jr. A. Edward Maddison DonLeroy Morales George Ross Somerville Orin Strunk Daniel Taylor Will Shepherd Vestal Cory O’Niell Walker Steven Williamson

bass

Jordan Barrett Gregory Cantwell Jean Bernard Cerin Jeffrey Chapman Peter Christian Stephen Dagrosa Lucas DeJesus James Osby Gwathney, Jr. Christopher Hodges Maxwell Levy Matthew Luloffs Mark Malachesky John David Miles Frank Mitchell Cody Montá Cody Müller Case Nafziger Robert Phillips Lourin Plant Andrew Skitko Will Tvrdik

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WORLD PREMIERE

SEPTEMBER 22, 24M, 27, 29, OCTOBER 1, 2016 P E R E L M A N T H E AT E R PA R T O F T H E K I M M E L C E N T E R F O R T H E P E R F O R M I N G A R T S

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BREAKING THE WAVES american repertoire program | co - commissioned with beth morrison projects based on the film by lars von trier ( zentropa entertainments 3) by arrangement with g . schirmer , inc ., publisher and copyright owner

Music / Missy Mazzoli Libretto / Royce Vavrek Conductor / Steven Osgood* Director / James Darrah* Scenic Design / Adam Rigg* Costume Design / Chrisi Karvonides* Projection Design / Adam Larsen* Lighting Design / Pablo Santiago* Wig & Make-up Design / David Zimmerman Chorus Master / Elizabeth Braden Stage Manager / Becki Smith Dramaturgs / Mike Cohen, Cori Ellison

C AST Bess McNeill / Kiera Duffy Jan Nyman (Bess's husband) / John Moore* Dodo McNeill (Bess's sister-in-law) / Eve Gigliotti Bess's Mother / Patricia Schuman Dr. Richardson / David Portillo Terry / Zachary James* Minister / Marcus DeLoach Sadistic Sailor / John David Miles The Runt / George Ross Somerville The Stone Thrower / Daniel Taylor A Chorus of Church Elders, Oil Rig Workers, Voice of God, and Townspeople *Opera Philadelphia debut This production includes explicit language and sexual content.

Major support for Breaking the Waves has been provided by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, the William Penn Foundation, and the Wyncote Foundation at the recommendation of Daniel K. Meyer, M.D. Additional support is provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Wallace Foundation, and OPERA America's Opera Grants for Female Composers program, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.

Additional commissioning support by: Allen Freedman and Judith Brick Freedman; Chris Ahearn and Marla Mayer.

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conversation # B R E A K I N G T H E WAV E S #TURANDOTPHL # P H I L L Y F R I N G E 16 #MACBETH

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Funded by OPERA America’s Building Opera Audiences grant program, supported by the Anne and Gordon Getty Foundation.

Breaking the Waves Synopsis

Approximate running time for Breaking the Waves is two hours and 29 minutes, including one 20-minute intermission.

isle of skye, scotland, early 1970s act i Bess finds love with an off-shore oil rigger, Jan, and they are married in the strict Calvinist church of her hometown. Though they receive the church elders' blessings, Jan is viewed as an outsider. Bess takes her marriage vows seriously, even as she undergoes a sexual enlightenment with her new husband. Jan must return to the rig to work, forcing Bess into a deep depression. Bess's mother attempts to control her daughter's moods and threatens to return her to a mental hospital. Bess's sister-in-law Dodo warns Jan of his wife’s fragile emotional and mental state.

In conversations with God, Bess seeks answers and solace, and secretly asks that spiritual intervention bring Jan home early. A near-fatal accident on the rig forces Jan to return home under unexpected circumstances as Bess contemplates her own desires…

intermission act ii Bess learns that the accident on the rig has left Jan almost completely paralyzed. She believes it to be her fault and obsessively seeks redemption.

Attempting to liberate his wife, Jan encourages Bess to find men for sexual encounters. When Jan tries to kill himself, Bess becomes certain that she must obey her husband and find new

Photo by Dominic M. Mercier.

lovers. Failed attempts with strangers coincide with a decline in Jan's health, but Bess notices that Jan's health stabilizes as some of her new sexual explorations occur.

act iii Bess's reputation catches up to her, and she is excommunicated from the Church. She fails to understand why, and her fervent resolve to save Jan is only renewed. Bess finds herself aboard a large commercial ship where she is savagely raped and mutilated by sailors.

Her body is delivered to the hospital.

She dies in Dodo's arms as Jan wakes from surgery, his health dramatically improved. The elders agree to provide Bess a Calvinist funeral, but insist she be buried a sinner and consign her soul to hell. Dodo denounces the Elders’ actions and assists Terry in a bold choice. Jan, who has fully recovered, says goodbye to his wife. Bess has one last gift for Jan…

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Composer Missy Mazzoli A fast-rising composer on the contemporary music scene, Missy Mazzoli’s talent draws audiences equally into concert halls and rock clubs. Her unique music reflects a trend among composers of her generation who combine styles, writing music for the omnivorous audiences of the 21st century.

She inhabits a gorgeous and mysterious sound-world that melds indie-rock sensibilities with formal training from Louis Andriessen, David Lang, and Aaron Jay Kernis. Practically speaking, she amasses music in layers not normally found together but in ways that create matchless vertical harmonies.

Missy was recently deemed “one of the more consistently inventive, surprising composers now working in New York” (The New York Times), “Brooklyn’s post-millennial Mozart” (Time Out New York) and “one of the new wave of scarily smart young composers” (sequenza21.com). Her music has been performed all over the world by the Kronos Quartet, eighth blackbird, pianist Emanuel Ax, the Detroit Symphony, the LA Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, JACK Quartet, Opera Philadelphia, New York City Opera, cellist Maya Beiser, violinist Jennifer Koh, pianist Kathleen Supové, Dublin’s Crash Ensemble, the Sydney Symphony, and many others. Missy’s first opera, Song from the Uproar, enjoyed a critically-acclaimed, sold-out run in a Beth Morrison production at New York venue The Kitchen in March 2012, and has also been staged by LA Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and Milwaukee Opera Theatre.

Upcoming projects include a new work for acclaimed sextet yMusic and a new opera co-commissioned by Washington National Opera, Opera Omaha and New York’s Miller Theatre. Recent projects include Bolts of Loving Thunder, a solo piano piece for Emanuel Ax; and Vespers for a New Dark Age, commissioned by Carnegie Hall for percussionist Glenn Kotche and Missy’s ensemble Victoire.

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Missy attended the Yale School of Music, the Royal Conservatory of the Hague and Boston University. From 2012-2015, Missy was Composer in Residence with Opera Philadelphia, Gotham Chamber Opera, and Music Theatre-Group. Her music is published by G. Schirmer, Inc.

a meditation on the true nature of goodness…

Upon seeing Lars von Trier’s film Breaking the Waves, I immediately felt that the story of Bess McNeill and Jan Nyman could manifest in a refreshing and provocative new work for the operatic stage. Von Trier’s story is, above all, a meditation on the true nature of goodness; as the people around her use violence, anger, and manipulation to impose their will, Bess finds power in her own steadfast faith and an unwavering belief in the power of basic goodness, loyalty, and love. The music in this operatic version of Breaking the Waves illuminates the complexity von Trier brings to these characters – Bess dips into tenor range to sing a one-sided conversation with God (echoed by a stern male chorus), Jan pleads with Bess from his hospital bed, his voice vacillating between a growly drone and a drugged falsetto, the elders of the church sing lyrical Gaelic Psalms that quickly decay into angular reprobation. In creating music for Bess McNeill and her world I have had the opportunity to express my most daring compositional ideas to date, bringing these complex characters to life in a candid and unblinking light.

—Missy Mazzoli

Librettist Royce Vavrek Royce Vavrek is an Alberta-born, Brooklynbased librettist and lyricist who has been called "the indie Hofmannsthal" (The New Yorker), a "Metastasio of the downtown opera scene," (The Washington Post) and "an exemplary creator of operatic prose" (The New York Times).

With composer Missy Mazzoli, he wrote Song from the Uproar, which was premiered

by Beth Morrison Projects at The Kitchen in February of 2012. The opera was subsequently produced at LA Opera, Milwaukee Opera Theatre, and in concert at Da Camera and Chautauqua Opera Company, with upcoming engagements at Chicago Fringe Opera and at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. In 2018, Missy and Royce will next premiere Proving Up, their adaptation of Karen Russell’s short story, commissioned by Washington National Opera, Opera Omaha, and New York’s Miller Theatre.

His collaboration with composer David T. Little yielded the opera Dog Days, which received its world premiere at Peak Performances @ Montclair in 2012, coproduced by Beth Morrison Projects and directed by American maverick Robert Woodruff. The production toured to Fort Worth Opera, LA Opera, and as part of the Prototype Festival, followed by two new German productions, at Theater Bielefeld and Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater Schwerin.

David and Royce premiered their first grand opera, JFK, at Fort Worth Opera earlier this year. The work, called "ravishing" (Opera News) and "soul-shattering" (Dallas Observer), was co-commissioned by American Lyric Theater and Opéra de Montréal and featured scenic design and stage direction by Thaddeus Strassberger.

In 2014, Royce premiered 27, his first collaboration with composer Ricky Ian Gordon, at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, with renowned mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe directed by James Robinson. A new production was mounted at Pittsburgh Opera in early 2016, and a concert version will soon be presented by MasterVoices in New York City this fall. Their next project is an

adaptation of Gail Rock’s The House Without a Christmas Tree, for Houston Grand Opera.

Royce’s other recent and upcoming collaborations include work with composers Du Yun, Joshua Schmidt, Paola Prestini, Gregory Spears, Hannah Lash, Mikael Karlsson, Matt Marks, Andrew Gerle, Ellen Reid and Marisa Michelson.

haunted by the story of bess…

I have been haunted by the story of Bess McNeill since first seeing Lars von Trier’s film in 1997. A boy of only 14, I first sat arrested by the plight of Bess, in many ways, feeling a kinship with her. I did not know then how informative the film would be, but it has sunk into my marrow, become part of my body’s chemistry, and I carry it with me as the foremost example of the power of storytelling. In Jan, Bess finds a man with whom she joins into an unbreakable covenant with God, a marriage that breaks open the floodgates of one of the most passionate romances I’ve encountered in the cinema (or any other medium, for that matter). Bess’ journey is operatic: from her unbridled commitment to Jan, to his absences that lead to her desperation, to her unquestioning willingness to put herself in harm’s way believing that her sexual sacrifices will save his life. Her story sings, and with Missy I believe that we can translate her singular narrative into an important, intoxicating work of contemporary opera.

—Royce Vavrek

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Making Waves: Designing a World Premiere

By Aubrey Nagle When the curtain rises on Breaking the Waves, the months and years that went into the production, from concept to construction, will finally be brought to fruition. Undoubtedly many opera fans know how hard singers and musicians work for performances like these, expanding their repertory or even workshopping a brand new role, practicing for hours on end.

But opening night is an incredible experience for opera’s offstage heroes, too.

In addition to the performers on stage and in the orchestra pit, our composer and librettist, director, set designers, plus a large team of production managers, stagehands, prop masters, carpenters, electricians, and more, have brought this vision to life.

After all, a world premiere requires both the sheer muscle of bringing an opera to the stage in the 21st century, plus the creative ability to think it all up in the first place. Though Breaking the Waves has been adapted from film, there are no prior stage productions to look to, no classic recordings to reference. Designers can look to the film for insight, but there are no readymade costumes to borrow or sets of the Scottish Highlands to rent. It’s all made from scratch.

So, where does it all start?

For projection designer Adam Larsen, his cinematic creations begin with the music.

"I'm very much inspired by music," Larsen said. I'm a visual person and I love imagining – this is even before there’s a set design or anything like that – I’ll just listen to the music and see what images are conjured up for me.” The music also helps Emmy-winning costume designer Chrisi Karvonides dress performers for the stage.

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“When I draw, I often have the music playing because I want to be the conduit, a visual conduit. Hearing the music, looking at my research in front of me and drawing what I feel, as opposed to what I’m seeing,” she said.

From there she draws each costume, consulting with the director to make them just right, possibly redrawing them in the process. Then comes the cycles of fittings, fabrication, and alterations.

For set designer Adam Rigg, who grew up as a ballet dancer before turning to design, his process really begins with just walking around, exploring spaces out in the real world.

“I think because of my dance background I immediately – which I think is a little bit stranger than most designers – I immediately think space and scale,” Rigg said. “That’s my first impulse. A lot of designers and a lot of programs urge you to jump into visual research mode, but I tend to actually go find spaces and to walk around spaces. I try to sense scale. How many bodies? What is the relationship of bodies to space?”

For Breaking the Waves, that meant discovering two places that intrigued both he and director James Darrah: the white, blank rooms of art galleries and the foreboding concrete sea walls used to defend coastal lands. Then comes the visual research and gathering of images before drawing and building set models and, eventually, construction.

Larsen also found inspiration by the water.

His film projections for this production, shone by four projectors onto the set and its inhabitants, are inspired by images of ink in water and watercolors. When planning his projections, Larsen, whose background is in cinematography, goes through hundreds of images before

deciding on ones that fit the mood of the show. He then collages these images together with footage of water, ink, sky, or even the singers themselves, to create an atmospheric effect.

“The [Breaking the Waves] set is an amazing canvas for the projections, but it’s also just a very striking piece of architecture,” Larsen said. “It will work well being lit and it will also work well being projected upon. I love surfaces like that that aren’t screens, per se.”

Karvonides’ creations will live in this world of imposing walls spattered with inky textures – and her garments certainly get in on the messy fun.

“I’m actually really looking forward to [seeing] the oil workers because it’s going to be so encrusted and so aged,” she said.

“Then the Calvinists, they’re going to be all in black but their coats are covered in salt, rust and stains on the bottom. That I’m really looking forward to because then they become paintings and not just pretty frocks.”

Despite working in completely different media, Larsen, Rigg, and Karvonides all found inspiration in Darrah’s unique approach to storytelling, and how he, librettist Royce Vavrek and composer Missy Mazzoli brought out the emotional core of Breaking the Waves.

Costume illustration by Chrisi Karvonides.

especially appealing to young audiences but not dismissive to an older audience,” Karvonides agreed.

The journey to opening night was a long one for the whole cast and crew, but their enthusiasm for the project is easy to spot.

It’s not every day you get to design a world premiere, you know.

As Rigg put it, “You have this totally out of left field source material, I think, for an opera, which is exciting…but then you put Missy on top of that and how exciting she is… You don’t get a lot of projects like that.”

Aubrey Nagle is the Communications Manager at Opera Philadelphia.

“James is brilliant at finding ways to tell the story and pare it down to the essentials, I feel, and to contemporize things,” Larsen said.

“It’s all very well calculated and conceived that it becomes a new experience, 27

Composing Opera's Future in Philadelphia Opera Philadelphia is committed to embracing innovation and developing opera for the 21 st century. The World Premiere of Breaking the Waves is just the most recent in a string of new operatic works presented under the auspices of Opera Philadelphia’s American Repertoire Program, which launched in 2011 as a commitment to produce a new opera in ten consecutive seasons and has grown into one of the world’s leading incubators for the future of the art form.

The past year saw the East Coast premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain, which “reaffirmed the power and high quality of the composer’s first-ever opera” in a “memorable theatrical experience” (Opera News). The company also presented its first two world premieres in four decades, both of which reflect a commitment to programming works relevant to the multicultural Philadelphia community. ANDY: A Popera, an opera-cabaret hybrid inspired by the life, works, and philosophies of Andy Warhol, was described as “consistently creative, dynamic and visually compelling” (Opera News).

Charlie Parker’s YARDBIRD, “a swiftpaced chamber opera with a pulsing, jazz-infused score” (The New York Times) by composer Daniel Schnyder

Photo by Dominic M. Mercier.

and librettist Bridgette A. Wimberly, is an Opera Philadelphia commission that contemplates the life and death of the eponymous jazz legend. After premiering in Philadelphia, YARDBIRD made its first New York appearances 28

at Harlem’s Apollo Theater, inaugurating Opera Philadelphia’s new long-term partnership with the storied venue, and is scheduled to make its European premiere June 9–17, 2017 in London, presented

by Hackney Empire and English National Opera.

Opera Philadelphia’s creative laboratory has also yielded success stories like the East Coast premieres of Kevin Puts’s Silent Night, winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Music; Ricky Ian Gordon’s A Coffin in Egypt, an Opera Philadelphia co-commission starring Frederica von Stade; Theo Morrison’s Oscar, written for countertenor David Daniels, who starred as Oscar Wilde; as well as a production of Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters that built on the success of its New York premiere.

Future commissions include two 2017 world premieres: Elizabeth Cree, by the Silent Night team of Mark Campbell; and We Shall Not Be Moved, by composer Daniel Bernard Roumain, librettist and spoken word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph, and director Bill T. Jones.

Both of these operas will premiere in O17, Opera Philadelphia’s seasonopening festival presented across multiple venues in Philadelphia from September 14–25, 2017.

Photo by C. Smyth for VISIT PHILADELPHIA.

composer Kevin Puts and librettist

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Breaking the Waves Artists ELIZABETH BRADEN chorus master (Easton, Pennsylvania) recent activities: Cold Mountain, Opera Philadelphia;

2016 The Elixir of Love 2015 Oscar 2006 Margaret Garner (Partial Listing)

La traviata, Opera Philadelphia; Director of Music, Wallingford Presbyterian Church

JAMES DARRAH director (Los Angeles, California) recent activities: Director, Iris, Bard Summerscape;

Opera Philadelphia debut

Director, On the Town, San Francisco Symphony; Director, Iphigénie en Tauride, Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, Lisbon

MARCUS DeLOACH / Minister baritone (Andover, Massachusetts)

2016 Cold Mountain

recent activities: Sen. Joseph McCarthy/Interrogator/

Estonian Frank, Fellow Travelers, Cincinnati Opera; Owens/ Ethan/Homeguard, Cold Mountain, Opera Philadelphia; Maximilian, Candide, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra

KIERA DUFFY / Bess McNeill soprano (Downington, Pennsylvania) recent activities: The Illuminated Heart: Selections

2008 Th e Italian Girl in Algiers 2007 Hansel and Gretel 2006 Cinderella

from Mozart’s Operas, Mostly Mozart Festival; Faure: Requiem, Houston Symphony; Mozart's Mass in C Minor, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra

EVE GIGLIOTTI / Dodo McNeill mezzo-soprano (Brooklyn, New York)

2012 Dark Sisters

recent activities: Siegrune, Die Walküre, Washington

National Opera; Siegrune, Die Walküre, Houston Grand Opera; Isabella, L’italiana in Algeri, Opera Santa Barbara

ZACHARY JAMES / Terry bass (Brooktondale, New York) recent activities: Abraham Lincoln, The Perfect American,

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Teatro Real, English National Opera and Opera Queensland; The Scribe, Akhnaten, English National Opera; Billy Bigelow, Carousel, Springstead Theatre

Opera Philadelphia debut

Breaking the Waves Artists CHRISI KARVONIDES costume designer (Hermosa Beach, California) recent activities: Iphigénie en Tauride, Teatro Nacional

Opera Philadelphia debut

de São Carlos, Lisbon; Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels, Los Angeles Philharmonic; Blunt Talk, Starz

ADAM LARSEN projection designer (Ashville, North Carolina) recent activities: On the Town, San Francisco

Opera Philadelphia debut

Symphony; Iris, Bard Summerscape; Semele, Opera Omaha

JOHN MOORE / Jan Nyman baritone (Milford, Iowa) recent activities: Count Almaviva, The Marriage of

Opera Philadelphia debut

Figaro, Seattle Opera; Adario, Les Indes galantes, Bayerische Staatsoper; Tadeusz, The Passenger, Florida Grand Opera

JOHN MILES / Sadistic Sailor baritone (Omaha, Nebraska) recent activities: Thomas, Cold Mountain, Opera

2013 Silent Night 2012 La bohème 2012 Manon Lescaut (Partial Listing)

Philadelphia; Andy (Bass), ANDY: A Popera, Opera Philadelphia; Hateful Voice, Oscar, Opera Philadelphia

STEPHEN OSGOOD conductor (Ossining, New York) recent activities: La traviata and The Mikado,

Opera Philadelphia debut

Chautauqua Opera; JFK, Fort Worth Opera; Three Decembers, The Atlanta Opera

DAVID PORTILLO / Dr. Richardson tenor (San Antonio, Texas) recent activities: Ferrando, Così fan tutte, Opera

Australia; David, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Glyndebourne Festival Opera; Almaviva, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Metropolitan Opera

2014 Don Giovanni 2009 Madama Butterfly 2009 Gianni Schicchi (Partial Listing)

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Breaking the Waves Artists ADAM RIGG set designer (Los Angeles, California) recent activities: The Invisible Hand, Westport Country

Opera Philadelphia debut

Playhouse; Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again., Soho Rep; Salome, Overhead Projector

PABLO SANTIAGO lighting designer (Los Angeles, California) recent activities: On the Town, San Francisco

Opera Philadelphia debut

Symphony; Distant Vision, Zoetrope Productions directed by Francis Ford Coppola; Gianni Schicchi and Suor Angelica, Opera Santa Barbara

PATRICIA SCHUMAN / Bess's Mother soprano (Los Angeles, California)

2013 Powder Her Face 2002 Don Giovanni 1996 Madama Butterfly

recent activities: The Beggar Woman, Sweeney Todd, The Glimmerglass Festival; The Duchess, Powder Her Face, Odyssey Opera; Bloody Mary, South Pacific, Ivoryton Playhouse

GEORGE ROSS SOMERVILLE / The Runt baritone (Point Pleasant, New Jersey)

2016 The Elixir of Love 2016 Cold Mountain 2015 La traviata

recent activities: Trin, La fanciulla del West, Des Moines Metro Opera; Spoletta, Tosca, Sarasota Opera; First Armored Man, Die Zauberflöte, Opera Saratoga

DANIEL TAYLOR / The Stone Thrower tenor (Hatboro, Pennsylvania) recent activities: Giuseppe, La traviata, Opera

2016 The Elixir of Love 2016 Cold Mountain 2015 Oscar (Partial Listing)

Philadelphia; Alfred, Die Fledermaus, Poor Richard’s Opera; Basilio, Le nozze di Figaro, Opera Libera

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Breaking the Waves Orchestra & Chorus ORCHESTRA

violin i

electric guitar

violin ii

tenor

Dayna Anderson, Concertmaster Emma Kummrow

CHORUS

Vivian Barton Dozor

Christopher Hoster Steven Humes Toffer Mihalka George Ross Somerville Daniel Taylor Steven Williamson

bass

bass

viola

Jonathan Kim

cello

Miles B. Davis

flute

Adeline Tomasone

oboe

Geoffrey Deemer

clarinet

Joseph A. Smith

bassoon

Norman Spielberg

french horn

John David Smith

trombone

James Osby Gwathney, Jr. John David Miles Frank Mitchell Garrett Obrycki Tim Stopper Jackson Williams PRE-RECORDED MUSIC

record player music Missy Mazzoli

produced by

Derek Muro at YouTooCanWoo

bass

Brad Ward

Zach Abramson

percussion

Christopher Hanning

guitar

harp

piano/organ

Sophie Bruno Labiner

piano/synthesiser Linda Henderson

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David Bosenhard

Stephen Griesgraber Missy Mazzoli

Breaking the Waves Artistic & Production Team artistic

Assistant Director / Amanda Consol Assistant Costume Designer / Ruoxuan Li Principal Pianist / Lisa Keller Musical Assistant / Ting Ting Wong Assistant Chorus Master / Emily May Sung Supertitle Operator / Jack Schmieg Assistant Librarian / Goeffrey McDonald Diction Coach / Gerald Martin Moore

production & technical

Properties Supervisor / Amanda Hatch–Avista Custom Theatrical Services Assistant Lighting Designer / Chris Frey Festival Assistant Production Manager / Janet Embree Festival Driver/Runner / Shane Dreher Technical Director / Pete Mohan Master Electrician / Dennis Moore Properties / Chuck Scott Flyman / Tom Devine Assistant Electrician / Uel Bergey Scene Shop Technicians / Paul Lodes, Mike Ruffo, Tommy Bowen, Roland Reed Assistant Stage Managers / Jen Shaw, Brandon Ehrenreich Costume Coordinator / Stephen Smith Wardrobe Supervisor / Sue Cerceo Cutter/Tailor / Althea “Nell ” Unrath Cutter/Drapers / Kara Morasco, Anna Light First Hands / Derwin Cooper, Joyanne Rampulla, Patrick Mulhall Stitcher / Suzie Barrett Craftspersons / Kate Edelson, Julie Watson Shopper / Kathy Calhoun Wig & Make-up Assistant / Lexi O’Reilly

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B R E A K I N G T H E WAV E S F I L M S C R E E N I N G & PA N E L Saturday, Sept. 17 | 2:00 p.m.

PFS Roxy Theater $15 | $13 for Subscribers & Members

In anticipation of Opera Philadelphia’s World Premiere adaptation of Breaking the Waves, Opera Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Film Society are proud to present special screenings celebrating the 20 th anniversary of Lars von Trier’s Oscarnominated film starring Emily Watson and Stellan Skarsgård. Following the screening on Sept. 17, TV Guide’s Damian Holbrook will moderate a panel with opera librettist Royce Vavrek, composer Missy Mazzoli, and University of Pennsylvania professor Lance Wahlert. A second screening will take place on Sept. 19.

M O R R I S R O B I N S O N I N R E C I TA L Sunday, Sept. 18 | 2:30 p.m.

School of the Future, 4021 Parkside Ave $15 | $13 for Subscribers & Members

Bass Morris Robinson, appearing as Timur in Turandot, performs selections from Mozart, Schubert, Bernstein, Verdi’s Macbeth, and more in a rapturous solo recital accompanied by pianist Grant Loehnig. A can’t-miss preface to the season!

B R E A K I N G T H E WAV E S FILM SCREENING Monday, Sept. 19 | 7:00 p.m.

PFS Roxy Theater $10 | $8 for Subscribers & Members

B E T W E E N T H E N O T E S : T U R A N D OT Monday, Sept. 19 | 6:00 p.m.

Tuesday, Sept. 20 | 12:00 p.m.

Rendell Room at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts Opera Philadelphia Members only

Explore the score and themes of Puccini’s legendary final opera with musicologist Suzanne Bratt of the University of Pennsylvania. These engaging talks will expand even a Turandot devotee’s appreciation of the work.

Free for Members at the Contributor level ($100) & above.

PA N E L D I S C U S S I O N : W U R D TA L K S W I T H T H E M AC B E T H C A S T Tuesday, Sept. 20 | 8:45 pm The African American Museum of Philadelphia Free

Radio host Stephanie Renée of WURDAM moderates a conversation with cast members.

D E S I G N I N G A WO R L D P R E M I E R E : B R E A K I N G T H E WAV E S Wednesday, Sept. 21 | 7:00 p.m.

Innovation Studio at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts $10 | $9 for Subscribers & Members

How is opera made? The design team of Breaking the Waves takes you behind the scenes, from creating costumes to staging a World Premiere, in a discussion moderated by Opera Philadelphia Senior Vice President of Artistic Operations David Levy.

Watch Lars von Trier’s Oscar-nominated film, starring Emily Watson and Stellan Skarsgård, before experiencing its operatic adaptation.

Presented in partnership with the Philadelphia Film Society as part of the Signature Series at the PFS Roxy Theater.

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P E R F O R M A N C E P R OVO C AT I O N S : 20 YEARS OF BRETT BAILEY AND T H I R D WO R L D B U N F I G H T Friday, Sept. 23 | 6:00 p.m.

FringeArts FREE

Dr. Megan Lewis, Assistant Professor of theater history and criticism, University of Massachusetts Amherst, discusses the work of South African theater artist Brett Bailey and his performance group, Third World Bunfight.

T U R A N D OT O P E N I N G N I G H T GA L A

N E W M E M B E R B AC K S TAG E T O U R Saturday, Sept. 24 | 11:30 a.m.

Saturday, Oct. 1 | 11:30 a.m.

Academy of Music Available to new Members only

Take advantage of your only chance to peek backstage this season and join fellow new members for an extended tour of the Academy of Music. You’ll go behind the scenes of Turandot, exploring the set and discovering how our cast and crew bring this dazzling tale to life. Light refreshments will be provided.

Free for new Members at the Contributor level ($100) & above.

Friday, Sept. 23 | 5:00 p.m.

Dilworth Park and Academy of Music $500+ Full Gala | $100 After-Party Only

Celebrate the start of Opera Philadelphia’s 42 nd Season with a spectacular black-tie Opening Night Gala in a tented ballroom at Philadelphia’s lively new centerpiece location, Dilworth Park. Enhance your experience of the kaleidoscopic production of Puccini’s Turandot with a unique party that includes elegant cocktails and dinner before the performance, a champagne intermission reception in the Academy of Music ballroom, and a dazzling After-Party back in the tent with dessert, dancing, and the cast.

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T U R A N D OT B R U N C H W I T H WILLIAM BERGER Sunday, Sept. 25 | 12:00 p.m.

Academy of Music Ballroom $50| $45 for Subscribers & Members

Meet fellow opera buffs and enjoy a glamorous brunch while discussing one of Puccini’s most beloved works.

Metropolitan Opera Radio host William Berger presents a stimulating talk accompanied by audio and video excerpts, serving up a delicious appetizer (or digestif!) to a stunning production.

OPERA ON THE MALL: T U R A N D OT Saturday, Oct. 1 | 7:00 p.m.

Gates open at 5:30 p.m.

Independence National Historical Park FREE but registration recommended

Pack a picnic and settle into Independence Mall for a free big-screen HD broadcast of Puccini’s epic opera.

Perfect for friends and families, opera lovers and opera newbies alike, this is a true community event.

BRUNCH WITH MISSY MAZZOLI Sunday, Oct. 2 | 12:00 p.m.

The Capital Grille $50| $45 for Subscribers & Members

Breaking the Waves composer Missy Mazzoli joins a memorable brunch the morning after the conclusion of its World Premiere run. Join fellow opera lovers for an intimate meal as Mazzoli discusses this incredible project with Opera Philadelphia New Works Administrator Sarah Williams.

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spotlight Master Class with Christine Goerke Featuring Opera Philadelphia Emerging Artists Monday, Sept. 26 | 7:30 p.m.

Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

Christine Goerke soprano

Thomas Shivone bass-baritone

$10 | $9 for Subscribers & Members International star soprano Christine Goerke leads Opera Philadelphia Emerging Artists through a master class featuring Grant Loehnig on piano. You’ll witness these young talents blossom before your eyes as our

Johnathan McCullough baritone

incomparable Turandot shares her expertise.

Ashley Milanese soprano 40

Women’s Sexuality in Opera A Panel Discussion

Cori Ellison / moderator Glyndebourne dramaturg

Saturday, Oct. 1 | 1:00 p.m.

Innovation Studio at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts $10 | $9 for Subscribers & Members This season, Opera Philadelphia explores various facets of female sexuality on stage.

Christine Goerke / panelist soprano

From the dominant Turandot to the submissive Liù to the manipulated Bess McNeill, women’s sexuality and preconceived notions about their roles in society inform and resonate on the opera stage. What does sexuality mean to performers? How do they bring their own power to the stage? A panel of creative artists

Missy Mazzoli / panelist composer

explore sexuality, gender, and sexism on the operatic stage in an informative and energizing discussion.

Patricia Schuman / panelist soprano 41

SEPTEMBER 24 & 25, 2016 T H E P R I N C E T H E AT E R 42

T hird Wor ld Bunfight

MACBETH

american premiere tour

co - presented with fringearts as part of the curated

2016 fringe festival

Conceived, Designed, & Directed by Brett Bailey Music / Fabrizio Cassol after Giuseppe Verdi Libretto / Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play by William Shakespeare Conductor / Premil Petrovic Lighting Design / Felice Ross Choreography / Natalie Fisher with Owen Metsileng and Nobulumko Mngxekeza Stage Manager / Pule Sethlako

C AST Macbeth / Owen Metsileng Lady Macbeth / Nobulumko Mngxekeza Banquo / Otto Maidi

Major suppor t for the co-presentation of Macbeth has been provided to FringeAr ts by The Pew Center for Ar ts & Heritage, and to Opera Philadelphia by the William Penn Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Macbeth Concept & Themes In this radical take on Verdi’s Macbeth, Shakespeare’s story of ambition, treachery and witchcraft is set in the Great Lakes region of Central Africa, amongst the wars and ruthless exploitation that tear that invisible corner of the world apart. Within a milieu of multinational double-dealings, ethnic conflict, brutal militias, “blood minerals,” and glittering Chinese imports, a Congolese warlord and his ambitious wife murder their leader and unleash atrocities on the crumbling African province that they seize. Below, director Brett Bailey explains how this work came to be.

The first impulse to make this work arose from a desire to locate Macbeth within an African context, as I did with the dramas of Medea and Orfeus.

I am fascinated with how stuff – religions, philosophies, cultural modes, and material goods – washes up on the shores of Africa and is appropriated, infiltrated, modified, and put to new uses. I wanted to take Verdi’s opera of witchcraft, tyranny, and the will for power, and treat it in the same way: to appropriate it, infiltrate it, modify it. I imagined the opera as a nineteenth century architectural monolith – like a colonial cathedral – lost in the forests or grasslands of Central Africa; a memento of a prior era, now crumbling, shot full of bullet holes, sprayed with graffiti, collapsing under the weight of vines.

Themes that recur in my works are the hidden atrocities 44

Approximate running time of Macbeth is one hour and 40 minutes with no intermission.

Photos by Morne van Zyl & Brett Bailey.

committed in Africa by rapacious European colonial powers; the ruthless exploitation of the resources of the ‘developing world’ by multinationals; the forgotten ‘underworld’ in which millions of people toil in misery to supply goods and raw materials for the markets of the rich world; and the instability fueled in these countries by expedient “Super Powers.”

As a South African artist who has travelled and worked in many African countries, these themes are very close to home.

I have been aware of the catastrophe in the Eastern Congo for many years now, its scale and its complexity. It is striking to me that so few people outside of the region even know about it; because it smolders in a dark patch somewhere in Central Africa (rather than in the Middle East for instance), it is almost invisible.

For Macbeth, I created a troupe of refugee-performers from the conflict zones of the Eastern Congo.

They had discovered an old trunk

About Third World Bunfight

Third World Bunfight is a performance company that has maintained its position at the forefront of South African performance throughout its nineteen-year history. The company is directed by Brett Bailey and managed

by Barbara Mather. of paraphernalia (musical scores, costumes, etc.) from an amateur company that had performed Verdi’s opera in the region during the colonial period: a fascinating link between the present situation and the horrors that were perpetrated in the name of profit by the Belgian administration.

The troupe used the Macbeth material that they found in the trunk to tell the story of the plight of their country today. Like the tens of thousands of Africans who flock to Europe every year in small boats or on planes, but who are seen as problematic, nameless statistics, these performers have a desperate story to tell. They are emissaries from the Great Lakes region, come to put their story firmly on the world stage.

Third World Bunfight’s mission is to create and present innovative, multilayered, deeply considered performance and installation works of excellence, both locally and internationally; works that reveal the beauty, the wonder, the darkness, and the tragedy of our world. Our belief in the potential of art and performance to activate people, energize depressed situations, integrate the marginalized, transform and heal, underlies our ethos. Our works foreground issues, stories and situations that are all too often overlooked, suppressed or ignored. They unpack and expose the machinations of power that crush so many people or render them voiceless. Our main focus areas are the post-colonial situation in Africa, and historical and contemporary relations between Africa and the West. We have a strong orientation towards fostering and exposing the talents of both performers and nonperformers from disadvantaged and previously disadvantaged communities.

We have trained and worked with several thousand performers in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Haiti, New Zealand, Chile, and several European countries.

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From the Curators As the Fringe Festival approached its 20th year, we looked both inward and outward for ways to grow, as Philadelphia presenters and as global citizens. We’ve long admired the work that David B. Devan and his team are bringing to our city, and when we saw Third World Bunfight’s Macbeth in Brussels in 2014, we knew it could be the basis for a rich and rewarding collaboration.

Sitting at the intersection of the forward-thinking, boundary-breaking experimental performance that FringeArts is known for, and the world-class musicianship and reexamination of classic forms that are Opera Philadelphia’s forté, Macbeth is the first of what we hope will be many future partnerships between our organizations. As Opera Philadelphia launches O in 2017, we are thrilled to have laid the groundwork for a new Festival Season in our city.

But Third World Bunfight’s Macbeth is more than just an advantageous partnership between FringeArts and Opera Philadelphia. This piece, and the many other works spearheaded

by Third World Bunfight’s Artistic Director Brett Bailey, has been seen in festivals across Africa, Europe, Asia, and South America, but never in the United States. Bailey is a lightning rod for controversy: as a white South African working at the intersection of postcolonial politics and race relations, his works necessarily draw 46

Photo by Morne van Zyl & Brett Bailey.

fierce examination. And this, too, made us want to stand behind this work. Though Bailey has admitted he’s no fan of traditional opera forms, he’d been drawn to Macbeth enough to revisit it three times during his career. And he found a way in, effectively re-colonizing European titans Shakespeare and Verdi with the sounds, stories, and bodies of his native Africa, and reminding us that those ancient bloody conflicts are very much of our own time.

Nick Stuccio, FringeArts President & Producing Director and Sarah Bishop-Stone, FringeArts Programming Director

Conflict in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo Low-intensity ethnic and territorial tensions were ignited in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide of 1994, when around a million Hutu refugees together with the perpetrators of the genocide fled across the border into the DRC and destabilized the region. The subsequent wars and ongoing violence have seen the deaths of around 5.4 million people – the largest number in conflict since World War II. Millions of people are displaced. Militias with ethnic and national affiliations fragment and realign themselves.

Warlords arise and gather thugs and child soldiers around them and

terrorize civilians. Rape and sex-slavery are epidemic.

One of the prime causes of the continuing crisis is the extreme mineral wealth of the region. Rival militia battle each other for control of the mines. They force local men, women and children to work the mines at gunpoint. They tax them daily, leaving them barely enough to survive on.

When a new militia group takes control of a mine, it massacres, maims, and rapes to assert its power. Orphaned children are conscripted into the mines or the armies. The taxes that are collected are used to sustain operations, and to buy arms and supplies.

This system is sustained by local and neighbouring government officials, and by multinationals that draw the minerals out of the region, and make huge profits out of the various stages of production of electronic and industrial goods, and jewellery. They pour cash into the conflict zone, and have been known to facilitate the transfer of arms and ammunition to militia. They are aware of the atrocities being committed.

They see the civilians fleeing. They see them being torn apart. But it is collateral damage. One cannot be sentimental when profit is at stake‌ Brett Bailey

Photo by Morne van Zyl & Brett Bailey.

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Composer Fabrizio Cassol Mostly known as saxophonist and band leader of Aka Moon, one of Belgium’s most prominent jazz bands, Fabrizio Cassol is also active as a composer, with collaborations and projects in the fields of contemporary music, dance, theatre, hip-hop, and film scores.

Born in 1964, he majored in saxophone and chamber music at the Conservatory of Liège, where he also studied improvisation with Garret List and composition with Frederic Rzewski and Philippe Boesmans.

As a performer, after specializing with François Danneels, Steve Coleman, Joe Lovano, and Evan Parker, he devoted his efforts to the groups Trio Bravo, Nasa Na, La Grande Formation, and in 1993 started the group Aka Moon, with which he toured worldwide and has recorded 15 CDs so far.

As a composer he has written for La Grande Formation, the Musiques Nouvelles ensemble, and soloists such as Bernard Foccroulle. In his most recent works, written in close collaboration with choreographer Alain Platel, he revisited the masterpieces of Monteverdi and Bach, in a setting open to extra-European and non-notated, improvised music.

Photo by Dominic M. Mercier.

Listen to Opera

Philadelphia’s historic debut

at New York’s Apollo Theater

Charlie Parker's YARDBIRD: Live at the Apollo

saturday, november 19, 2016

Broadcast on New York City’s classical music station 105.9 WQXR, 48

wqxr.org, and distributed nationally by the WFMT Radio Network

Macbeth Artists BRETT BAILEY director (Cape Town, South Africa) recent activities: Artistic Director, Third World Bunfight;

Opera Philadelphia debut

Director/Designer, EXHIBIT B, Fast Forward Festival, Galway International Arts Festival, Asian Culture Complex Arts Theatre; Director/Designer, Third World Bunfight’s Macbeth, World Tour

NATALIE FISHER choreographer ( Johannesburg, South Africa) recent activities: Rio 2016 Summer Olympics Opening

Opera Philadelphia debut

Ceremony, Roger Titley Creatures; Where The White Man Runs Away, dir. Bryan Buckley, Hungry Man Productions; House of the Holy Afro, Third World Bunfight

OTTO MAIDI / Banquo baritone (Rustenburg, South Africa) recent activities: Joe, Show Boat, Cape Town Opera,

Opera Philadelphia debut

Den Norske Opera, Théâtre du Châtelet; Colline, La bohème, Opera Africa, Opera sør; Banquo, Third World Bunfight’s Macbeth, World Tour

OWEN METSILENG / Macbeth baritone (Rustenburg, South Africa) recent activities: Le Dancaïre, Carmen, Cape Town

Opera Philadelphia debut

Opera; Barone Douphol, La traviata, Cape Town Opera; Marcello, La bohème, Cape Town Opera

NOBULUMKO MNGXEKEZA / Lady Macbeth soprano (Queenstown, New Zealand) recent activities: Impempe Yomlingo, The Magic Flute,

Opera Philadelphia debut

Isango Ensemble; Abanxaxhi, La bohème, Isango Ensemble; Ragged Trouser Philanthropist, Isango Ensemble

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Macbeth Artists PREMIL PETROVIC conductor (Berlin, Germany) recent activities: Chief Conductor and Artistic Director,

Opera Philadelphia debut

No Borders Orchestra; Conductor, Zora D., Žebeljan Orchestra; Conductor, The Opening, Universal Music

FELICE ROSS lighting designer (Elizabeth, New Jersey) recent activities: Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno,

Festival d’Aix en Provence; Le Château de Barbe-Bleue/La Voix humaine, Opéra national de Paris; Powder Her Face, Théâtre Royale de La Monnaie and Teatr Wielki Opera Narodowa

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Opera Philadelphia debut

Macbeth Orchestra, Chorus & Production Team ORCHESTRA

violin

Meichen Liao-Barnes, Concertmaster Charles Parker

viola

Carol Briselli

cello

CHORUS

soprano

Philisa Sibeko Thomakazi Holland

mezzo-soprano

Jacqueline Manciya

tenor

Jennifer Lorenzo

Sandile Kamle Lunga Hallam

bass

bass

Anne Peterson

flute

Monde Masimini Bulelani Madondile

Kimberly Trolier

clarinet

Allison Herz

bassoon

Wade Coufal

trumpet

Brian Kuszyk

trombone

Matthew Gould

percussion

Dylan Tabisher Cherilee Adam

THIRD WORLD BUNFIGHT

artistic & production team

Managing Director / Barbara Mathers Technical Manager / Miguel Munoz Company Manager / Catherine Henegan Stage Manager / Pule Sethlako Sound Engineer / Pierre-Olivier Boulant AV Engineer & Technical Assistant / Carlo Thompson Re-lighter / Tal Bitton Video Illustration & Animation / Roger Williams Photographs projected during the opera / Marcus Bleasdale VII, Cedric Gerbehaye Supertitle Text / Brett Bailey Rehearsal Pianist / Jose Diaz, Kurt Haupt Costumes / Penny Simpson Props / Cristina Salvoldi, Iron Pear Publicity Photographs / Morne van Zyl, Brett Bailey Vocal Coach / Albert Combrink

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YOU ARE THE

HEROES O F T H I S S T O RY

You are the protagonist in the

story of our most recent season,

opera to come together, and you

as well as the unwritten stories

make the art that they create

donors, who serve as the leading

the heroes who will ultimately

Your enthusiasm, your ideas, and

human spirit for an audience

the space for the best minds

composition, and its passion.

of seasons ahead. It is you, our

players at Opera Philadelphia.

your generosity have created

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and talents in the world of

as a result a reality. You are

celebrate, lift, and champion the unprecented in its size, its

From Top: Chairman’s Council Members Bob and Charlotte Watts, Leadership Circle Members Walter and Alice Strine, and General Director’s Council Member Bill Leonard. Chairman Daniel K. Meyer, M.D., Leadership Circle Member David Haas, and Chairman's Council Member Susan Sherman, of the Independence Foundation. General Director’s Council Members Ken and Pam Dunn with Chairman’s Council Members Mamie Duff and Scott Richard. Leadership Circle Member Peter Leone with Chairman's Council Members Heidi L. Kolberg and Joshua Barnett. General Director and President David B. Devan with Leadership Circle Members Barbara Augusta Teichert, Chairman Daniel K. Meyer, M.D., Sandra Baldino, Peter Leone, and Managing Director Annie Burridge. Photographs by HughE Dillon, Dominic M. Mercier, and Sofia Negron.

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Leadership Circle & Chairman's Council Opera Philadelphia’s top giving programs, the Leadership Circle & Chairman’s Council, are comprised of passionate groups of philanthropists committed to ensuring that the future of opera is right here in Philadelphia.

Their collective generosity underwrites more than half of Opera Philadelphia’s artistic expenses each season, including productions in the Academy of Music, the nationally-lauded Aurora Series for Chamber Opera at the Perelman Theater, Opera on the Mall, and our awardwinning programs for children.

Left to right: Chairman's Council members Eugene and Jean Stark at the Opening Night Party for Charlie Parker's YARDBIRD at the Apollo (photo by Sofia Negron); Sarah Shafer, Leadership Circle member Judith Durkin Freyer, and Katrina Thurman at the Director's Salon for The Elixir of Love (photo by Ashely Magitz); Chairman Daniel K. Meyer, M.D. with Isabel Leonard at the Meet the Artists Reception for Cold Mountain (photo by J.R. Blackwell).

For more information, contact Erin Sammis, Director of Development, at 215.893.5904 or sammis@operaphila.org.

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General Director's Council Members of the General Director’s Council play a pivotal role in the future of Opera Philadelphia through their generous annual support, collectively underwriting principal artists, and individually sponsoring Emerging Artists. Members enjoy insider access to artistic planning and company initiatives through Strategy Sessions as well as intimate gatherings with Opera Philadelphia’s stars and leadership at private dinners, cast parties, and exclusive events. Council membership begins with annual gifts of $10,000 and can be made in convenient monthly or quarterly installments or with gifts of stock.

become an essential member of opera philadelphia’s donor family by joining the council today!

Top to bottom: General Director's Council member Judith Brick Freedman with General Director & President David B. Devan and tenor Lawrence Brownlee at the Opening Night Party for Charlie Parker's YARDBIRD (photo by HughE Dillon); Council members Linda and David Glickstein with Board member and Patron Program Chair Donna Wechsler and Chairman Daniel K. Meyer, M.D. at the Director's Salon for The Elixir of Love (photo by Ashley Magitz); Council member Renée Rollin with Emerging Artist Andrew Bogard, whom she underwrote for the 2015-2016 Season, at the Emerging Artist Recital and Member Appreciation Reception (photo by Dominic M. Mercier); Council members Kathy Hanrahan and Drew Christiano at the Opening Night Gala (photo by Sofia Negron).

For more information, visit operaphila.org/gdcouncil or contact Jennifer Dubin, Associate Director, Individual Giving & Patron Services, at 215.893.5944 or dubin@operaphila.org.

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Patron Program

Official Sponsor of Opera Philadelphia’s Patron Program

The Patron Program is a vital force

Patrons enjoy access to VIP

behind Opera Philadelphia’s

benefits in the opera house

spectacular productions and

including a VIP coat check and

community programs through

champagne intermission receptions,

their united annual support and

as well as exclusive social events

enthusiasm for Opera Philadelphia

throughout the season and priority

and the art form.

ticketing services.

join this passionate group of opera lovers with a gift of $2,500 today!

Left to right: Patron Program members Dick and Margaret Ullman at the Opening Night Party for Charlie Parker's YARDBIRD (photo by HughE Dillon); Patron Program member and composer Jennifer Higdon with Council member Allen Freedman and Patron Rhoda Herrold at the Meet the Artists Reception for Cold Mountain (photo by J.R. Blackwell).

For more information, visit operaphila.org/patrons or contact Jennifer Dubin, Associate Director, Individual Giving & Patron Services, at 215.893.5944 or dubin@operaphila.org.

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CORPORATE COUNCIL The Corporate Council generously supports Opera Philadelphia’s artistic and educational programming through contributions and in-kind donations.

2016–2017 season sponsors

corporate council sponsors Center City Film and Video CRW Graphics

Official Piano

Official Piano Service Provider

PNC

Saks Fifth Avenue

Universal Health Services Official Sponsor of Opera Philadelphia’s Patron Program

Chariman’s Opening Night Dinner Sponsor

Bank of America Ballard Spahr LLP BNY Mellon Wealth Management Morgan Stanley

Official Automotive Dealership

Season Media Partners

PECO

Exelon Business Services MAC Cosmetics Brand Communications Partner

Official Catering Partner

Termini Bros. Bakery

For more information about sponsorship opportunities, or to join Opera Philadelphia's Corporate Council, please contact Rachel McCausland, Major Gifts Officer, at 215.893.5909 or mccausland@operaphila.org.

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DOES OPERA MOVE YOU? Become a Member Today!

Even when every seat in the house sells out, this dazzling blend of theatrical, orchestral, and vocal splendor requires considerable philanthropic support from within our community.

Play an active role in bringing great opera to Philadelphia while enjoying exclusive benefits that enhance your opera experience when you make a membership gift of $100 or more.

MEMBERS ENJOY:

Early access and savings on ticket purchases Invitations to member-only recitals and lectures

Behind-the-scenes events like dress rehearsals and backstage tours

Memberships start at $100 (or only $8 per month)

And much more!

For more information, visit our information desk in the lobby, contact Guest Services at 215.732.8400, or email membership@operaphila.org.

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Be part of

VIVACE

Opera Philadelphia's Community for Young Professionals

VIVACE offers a curated suite of exclusive events for young professionals between the ages of 21–45. See the shows, meet the casts, and mingle with

Opera Philadelphia thanks Saks Fifth Avenue for its support of VIVACE.

like-minded peers at VIVACE nights throughout the season.

all-inclusive experiences start at just $50.

Left to right: VIVACE Ambassador Alexander Mason Hankin, Molli Weisband, Danielle Hankin, Regina Tuckinsky, Robert Marsch; Molly Whitehouse, VIVACE Ambassador Clint Walker, Leah Pittas, tenor Dimitri Pittas, VIVACE Ambassadors Sarah Alderfer and Brian Hylton (photos by HughE Dillon).

To join or discover more, go to operaphila.org/vivace or contact vivace@operaphila.org.

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Meet Opera Philadelphia's Emerging Artists The Opera Philadelphia stage has a history as a welcoming environment where rising vocal talents are nurtured. Eric Owens, Ailyn Pérez, and Nathan Gunn are just some of the young singers who went on to great operatic careers following early exposure to the professional stage in Philadelphia. Last season, rising baritone Jarrett Ott received critical acclaim for both his supporting role as Marchese D’Obigny in Verdi’s La traviata and his star turn as W.P. Inman in the East Coast Premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain.

Jarrett’s superb performances came as part of his second season in Opera Philadelphia’s Emerging Artists Program, which returns in 2016–2017 with a crop of three burgeoning talents who will engage with Opera Philadelphia onstage, appearing in at least one production, while also singing in community recitals and special events throughout the 2016–2017 Season. Let’s meet this year’s Emerging Artists…

Jarrett Ott as W.P. Inman in Cold Mountain. Photo by Kelly & Massa.

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Baritone Johnathan McCullough (underwritten by Judith Durkin Freyer and Charles C. Freyer) is a Los Angeles native who recently completed his graduate studies in the opera program at the Curtis Institute of Music. While at Curtis, he has performed roles ranging from Papageno in The Magic Flute to Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, and also sang in workshops for Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain and Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves. He’ll sing the role of The Mandarin in Turandot and will cover the role of Jan Nyman in Breaking the Waves.

Soprano Ashley Milanese (underwritten by Ms. Constance C. Moore) is a New Orleans native studying in the opera program at the Curtis Institute of Music, and has previously studied at The Juilliard School. Opera Philadelphia audiences know her from Curtis Opera Theatre co-presentations like Ariadne auf Naxos, where she “delivered an excellent Zerbinetta” (Opera News), as well as Capriccio (Italian Singer) and Dialogues of the Carmélites (Sister Constance).

She will sing Barbarina in The Marriage of Figaro and will cover the role of Bess McNeill in Breaking the Waves.

Bass-baritone Thomas Shivone (underwritten by Dr. Renée Rollin), a Fort Worth native, is familiar to Opera Philadelphia audiences from roles in the East Coast premieres of Silent Night and Oscar, and recent Curtis Opera Theatre copresentations like Ariadne auf Naxos and Capriccio. Thomas recently completed his graduate studies in the opera program at the Curtis Institute of Music. He will sing Antonio in The Marriage of Figaro.

For information on how you can underwrite an Emerging Artist, please contact Jennifer Dubin, Associate Director, Individual Giving & Patron Services, at 215.893.5944 or dubin@operaphila.org.

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Making an Impact through Opera Opera Philadelphia believes in the transformative power of opera to build a better future through a number of in-school and afterschool programs.

sounds of learningtm

In the 26 years since its debut, more than 150,000 students have attended an opera at the Academy of Music for free thanks to Opera Philadelphia’s award-winning, curriculum-based music appreciation program, Sounds of Learning™. During the 2015–2016 season, Sounds of Learning™ reached a total of 9,781 students, and almost 4,000 students from Philadelphia and surrounding counties enjoyed performances of La traviata, Cold Mountain, or The Elixir of Love. A recent grant from the William Penn Foundation enabled us to bring opera into the schools, reaching thousands more students in grades K–12 through free teaching artist programs and an interactive assembly program exclusively for students in grades 3–8, which reached 1,360 students in one week!

t-voce

The Teen Voices of the City Ensemble, or T-VOCE, a new initiative launched

by Opera Philadelphia in partnership with Art Sanctuary and the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, met

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each Saturday morning this past spring to practice, learn and – most importantly – have some fun with music. Now beginning its second year, this all-city youth choir is composed of students in grades 8–12 who live in Philadelphia, many of whom have no prior performance or musical experience because their schools lack music education.

hip h'opera

Students in Hip H’opera, an arts immersion program conducted in partnership with Art Sanctuary, continued to explore creative expression. Students spent the year examining the themes of family and community, a nod to We Shall Not Be Moved, a new opera premiering in fall 2017 whose creators cherish an ongoing artistic relationship with the Hip H’opera program. Students were asked to explore their own family dynamics, positive memories, and envision what their own family will look like in five to ten years’ time through poetry and verse.

workforce readiness

Youth in Philadelphia face a crisis when they leave school. Recent surveys show that 38% of the city’s 16–24 year olds live in poverty and more than 40% of all youth with high school equivalency

Opera Philadelphia thanks those who have dedicated their support to Community Programs: sounds of learningtm

The William Penn Foundation William A. Loeb

Photo by Phillip Todd

or less are unemployed. In an effort to support this segment of our community, this season Opera Philadelphia piloted a workforce readiness program to provide non-college bound high school seniors with a post-graduation path of economic independence and a living wage through technical careers in theater.

In partnership with the School District of Philadelphia, the Federation of Neighborhood Centers, Mastery Charter School, and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (I.A.T.S.E.), this pilot program saw 15 students from Mastery Charter Simon Gratz enrolled in 12 weeks of career exploration.

Students were given overviews of various jobs and met with several highly skilled tradesmen from I.A.T.S.E. Local 8, which provides the Opera with stagehands, electricians, props makers, wardrobe artists, and more. They also took tours of the Academy of Music and the Opera Philadelphia Scene Shop, attended the final dress rehearsal of The Elixir of Love, created theater models, and participated in mock interviews and job-hunting exercises.

Wells Fargo Hamilton Family Foundation Universal Health Services Eugene Garfield Foundation The Hirsig Family Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation Morgan Stanley Foundation Alpin J. And Alpin W. Cameron Fund The McLean Contributionship Louis N. Cassett Foundation Victory Foundation

t-voce

Wyncote Foundation

hip h'opera

Kathy Hanrahan The Wyncote Foundation

workforce readiness Lenfest Foundation Sheller Family Foundation

LEARN MORE operaphila.org/in-schools | 215.893.5925 67

Opera Philadelphia Encore Society If the Opera has played a significant role in your life, we invite you to pay it forward to future generations by including Opera Philadelphia in your estate plans.

Opera Philadelphia’s Encore Society acknowledges the generosity of those individuals who have included the company in their estate plans as an important philanthropic commitment to opera’s future in Philadelphia, and the Society is our way of honoring members today for the legacy they will leave tomorrow.

Not only do members enjoy exclusive access to events that allow them to celebrate the impact of their commitment to the organization’s continued artistic growth, but these gifts have the potential to provide valuable tax and income benefits now and in the future.* * Please consult your f inancial and/or legal advisors to determine which type of gift is best for you and for the legal requirements and tax advantages specif ic to these gifts.

Photo: Encore Society members Ben Alexander and Sheila Kessler with baritone Mark Stone at the annual Encore Society luncheon.

To join or to receive more information, go to operaphila.org/encore or contact Rachel McCausland, Major Gifts Officer at 215.893.5909 or mccausland@operaphila.org.

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Sharing a Love of Opera Opera Philadelphia thanks our many friends who volunteer their time to help us bring opera to our great city.

Thank you! vivace ambassadors Sarah Alderfer Bhavani Bee Elizabeth Convery Kent Jurin Alexander Mason Hankin Brian Hylton Kelley S. Reilly Clint Walker

volunteers

Mrs. Nan Altman Ms. Alexandria Ast Ms. Liz Bligan Ms. Maureen Broadbent Mr. Jerry Brown Mrs. Paula C. Burns Ms. Tracie Burns Ms. Lorance Checchia Mr. Douglas Cowperthwaite Mr. Dan Darigan Ms. Katie Defries Mr. and Mrs. Ray D. DiSandro Mr. and Mrs. Keith Dufendach Mrs. Sandra Dunn Mr. and Mrs. John Durso Mr. Dave Eder Ms. Katie Endres Mr. Brian Fagan and Mr. Eric D. Ashton Ms. Michelle Ferry Ms. Keeley Flack Ms. Kristen Forrest Ms. Elia Foster Mr. Timothy V. Gardocki Mr. Kevin M. Gifford Ms. Erica Givans Ms. Jerene Good Ms. Kate Graham

Mr. Rodney H. Green Ms. and Mr. Ronnie Green Ms. Deborah Coombe Haas Ms. Barbara Habershaw Ms. Vanessa Habershaw Mr. Charles Head, Jr. and Mr. John Faggotti Mr. and Mrs. Peter Hearn Mr. Michael L. Hill Mr. George Hollingsworth Mr. James D. Hutchison Ms. Jennifer Jackson Mr. Karl Janowitz Mr. Marc Delano Jenkins Mr. Joseph Juhase Ms. Josephyne King Miss Rebecca Krown Jade Lassiter Ms. Vivian Lee Ms. Winnie Lin Ms. Roberta Marcus Mr. Brian Maus and Ms. Monica Steigerwald Mr. and Mrs. Philip R. Mayer Ms. Chelsea McCaskill Kahlan McClure Ms. Cheryl Mclure Ms. Maria McMichael Mr. Robert Mellin Mr. William Mirsky Mr. Henry Mitchell Ms. Kimberly Moore Mr. Justin Nachod Tiffany Nack Ms. Valentina Nardo Ms. Joann Neufeld Ms. Diana Nguyen Hanila Novak Ms. Jennifer Paz-Bedoya Ms. Deborah Peters Ms. Ellen Peters Ms. Shirley Peters Ms. Jackie Phillips

Ms. Maggie Piscitelli Mr. and Mrs. Michael Pucillo Mr. Sam Rabinovitz Ms. Ana Radonjic Mr. Michael Rissinger Ms. Cathy Rosenberg Dr. Thomas Sauerman Ms. Melanie Shafer Ms. Alana Sharkey Ms. Christine Shearburn Ms. Elena E. Shomos Miles Shore Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Snyder Mr. Peter Stevens Mr. Abdul B. Tabb Mr. Matthew Tann Mr. Daniel Tharp Mr. and Mrs. Jay Tinkleman Dr. Emerson S. Tjart Ms. Jacqueline Upshaw Mrs. Lisa Upshaw-Mayo Mrs. Alice Vaders Mr. Nathan Vande Burgt Mr. Lee Vandivier Mr. John Ventura Dr. and Mrs. Herbert Wartenberg Mr. Shelton C. West, Jr. Ms. Jessica Williams Mr. Liankun Zhu

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Opera Philadelphia Administration leadership

David B. Devan

General Director & President

Corrado Rovaris

Jack Mulroney Music Director

production

Alexander Farino

Director of Production

Stephen Dickerson

Technical Director

Millie Hiibel

Costume Director

Annie Burridge

Meggie Scache

Jeremiah Marks

Drew Billiau

David Levy

Katie Foster

Managing Director

Chief Financial Off icer

Senior Vice President, Artistic Operations

Michael Bolton

Vice President of Community Programs

Mikael Eliasen

Artistic Advisor

Kristy Edmunds

Artistic Advisor

Nathan Gunn

Director, American Repertoire Council

Youngmoo E. Kim

Resident Technologist

music

Michael Eberhard

Artistic Administrator

Sarah Williams

Production Manager

Technical Manager

J. Robert Loy

Director of Orchestra Personnel & Orchestra Librarian

David Hertzberg

Composer in Residence

David T. Little

Composer in Residence

Rene Orth

Composer in Residence

Peggy Monastra

Partnerships, New Productions, & Commissions

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Membership Manager

Nathan Schultz

Grants Manager

Christina Polet

Advancement Research Manager

Erica Weitze

Development Operations Coordinator

communications

Assistant Costume Director Frank Luzi Kelsey Burston Director of Administrative Assistant, Communications Artistic Operations Aubrey Nagle Communications Manager

marketing & guest services Ryan Lewis

Director of Marketing

Ernie D. DeRosa

Guest Services Manager

Karina Kacala

Marketing Manager

Michael Knight

Marketing Operations Manager

Lucy Clemens

Concierge

Ashley Colabella New Works Administrator RenĂŠe Drezner Elizabeth Braden Siddhartha Misra Chorus Master & Nicole Renna

Music Administrator

Filiz Leigh

Guest Services Associates

development Erin Sammis

Director of Development

Adele Mustardo

Director of Events

Jennifer Dubin

Associate Director, Individual Giving & Patron Services

Rachel McCausland

Major Gifts Off icer

Derren Mangum

Associate Director of Institutional Giving

Katie Kelley

Graphic Designer

administration Ken Smith

Assistant to General Director & Board Relations Coordinator

community programs Steven Humes

Education Manager

finance

Brian Ramos

Controller

Bethany Steel

Operations Manager

Alison McMenamin

Accounting Associate

counsel

Ballard Spahr, LLP

General Counsel

Up Next ROSSINI

Tancredi FEBRUARY 10–19, 2017 | ACADEMY OF MUSIC Rossini’s medieval tale of love and chivalry is transported to post-World War I Europe, where two warring nobles – Argirio and Orbazzano – have formed a truce in the face of an approaching army. Argirio’s beautiful daughter, Amenaide, is in love with the exiled soldier Tancredi, but agrees to marry Orbazzano to strengthen her family’s alliance. Yet, when a love letter to Tancredi falls into the wrong hands, Amenaide is accused of treason.

With his great love wrongly sentenced to death, Tancredi must return home, disguised, to fight for her life.

Renowned mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, “a once-in-a-generation opera singer” (The New York Times), makes her highly anticipated role debut as Tancredi. "I essayed my first title role in a Rossini opera right here on the Academy of Music stage back in 2000 as Isabella in L’Italiana in Algeri,with Maestro Rovaris leading the way," Blythe said. "It is a great joy and privilege to perform in my first staged version of Tancredi with my friend at the podium and the luminescent Brenda Rae by my side. Being part of a first rate cast is such a joy—many thanks for allowing me to return in such grand style!"

Soprano Brenda Rae, known for her “high-flying voice and an irresistibly scintillating stage presence” (WQXR), and 2016 International Opera Award nominee tenor Michele Angelini make their company debuts as Amenaide and Argirio. Beloved bass-baritone Daniel Mobbs and Opera Philadelphia Emerging Artist mezzo-soprano Nian Wang complete this star-studded cast.

Internationally acclaimed director Emilio Sagi leads this production from the Opera de Lausanne and Teatro Municipal de Santiago, with Corrado Rovaris conducting the Opera Philadelphia Orchestra.

O R D E R N O W F O R T H E B E S T S E AT S operaphila.org | 215.732.8400

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1 2 - D AY O P E N I N G N I G H T SEPTEMBER 14–25, 2017

Opera Philadelphia’s new, annual festival O makes the soaring song, sound, and soul of opera accessible to aficionados and newcomers alike, while opening the genre to creative opportunity. As a groundbreaking season opener for Opera Philadelphia, O17 will feature twelve days of opera with compelling performances all around the city.

WORLD PREMIERE

BROADCAST OF THE MAGIC FLUTE

ELIZABETH CREE

OPERA ON

Perelman Theater

THE MALL Independence National Historical Park

WORLD PREMIERE

WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED The Wilma Theater

F E S T I VA L A R T I S T

SONDRA R A D VA N O V S K Y

DOUBLE BILL

I N R E C I TA L

PHILADELPHIA PREMIERE

Perelman Theater

WA R S T O R I E S Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda

WORLD PREMIERE

and I Have No Stories To Tell You

TO BE

Philadelphia Museum of Art

ANNOUNCED Performance piece that interacts

EXCLUSIVE EAST COAST APPEARANCE

with the Barnes Foundation’s

THE MAGIC FLUTE

internationally-renowned collection

Production from Komische Oper Berlin

The Barnes Foundation

Academy of Music

The Academy of Music and Perelman Theater are part of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.

Subscribe to the 2016–2017 Season now and get priority access to purchase O17 festival ticket packages once they become available.

FOR MORE INFORMATION , VISIT OPERAPHILA.ORG/O

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KIMMEL CENTER and STAGEVIEW

STAGEVIEW: your paperless program book Scan the code located to the left with your smart device for additional information on the show, or visit www.stageview.co/kmc

NO APPS. NO DOWNLOADS Access your program book quickly and securely without a cumbersome download.

SOCIAL INTERACTION Connect to your favorite venue and performers while you sit in the audience.

PURCHASE TICKETS Purchase tickets for upcoming shows right from your seat.